ENTERTAINMENT

School teaches the tricks of professional wrestling

Jeff Barron
Reporter

LANCASTER – Ever dream of body-slamming an opponent into the ring like World Wrestling Entertainment stars do? Or dropping the bad guy with a clothesline as he bounces off the ropes? How about creating an alter ego that the crowd drowns with applause?

Students at the newly-opened International Wrestling Alliance School of Professional Wresting at 737 Slocum Ave. learn all that and more. The school teaches students everything they need to know to enter the world of professional wrestling. This is not the amateur wrestling found at the high school and collegiate level. This the wrestling of Hulk Hogan, the Iron Sheik, John Cena and other pro stars.

"Real wrestling," owner and current IWA heavyweight champion Chris Cruit said.

Prospective students get one free tryout session before committing to the $40 per month fee. Both men and women are welcome to try out.

"You've got to do a tryout," Cruit said. "This is not for everybody. You can learn to be good at football. You can learn to sacrifice for football, baseball and basketball. The potential amount of sacrifice that wrestling takes, you can't learn it. It has to be something you just want to do."

Therefore, Cruit said children are often better wrestlers than adults.

"Why?" he said. "They're fearless. They don't have kids, they don't have a house to worry about, they don't have a job to worry about. It's all they think about. All day."

Classes are held Tuesday and Thursday. Sessions for children 8 to 18 are from 5 to 7 p.m. and adults from 7 to 9 p.m. The first class is called TNK, or Total Nonstop Kids.

Cruit said students will learn how to protect themselves in the ring, along with the psychology of a match, why they are performing a certain move, teamwork and creating a character.

"If little Johnny comes in here and little Johnny is a sweet kid, I don't want little Johnny to be a sweet kid in the ring," he said. "So how about little Johnny as a killer?"

Cruit is a villain in the ring and explained the psychology of playing a bad guy.

Kevin Cruit, left, wrestles with his brother Matthew Cruit Tuesday at a Total Nonstop Kids wrestling class in Lancaster.

"A wise man once said, 'Don't cheat because you have to, cheat because you want to,'" he said. "Sometimes I have a perfect opportunity to maybe do a legit wrestling hold. But I could just hit them with a low blow. It's easier, it's more fun and I like it."

Cruit also said students will learn to trust each other in the ring so they can perform the wrestling moves on each other. He said that is because a wrestler must do all they can to avoid injuring the opponent.

"If you had no broken bones when I picked you up, you need to have no broken bones when I put you back down," Cruit said.

Cruit said he wants to teach students to protect each other outside of the ring too.

"If I can teach these kids that bullying is not cool, but standing up for each other is cool, well, man, I think we're going to effectively get rid of some bullies," he said.

For the youth classes, the children work with other youths, with Cruit, instructor and pro wrestler Bull Miller or another wrestler overseeing.

"My son, Kevin Cruit, he does the training," Cruit said. "We'll stand out there and we'll watch and make sure that it's good and make sure that it's proper. If there's something that we need to do and jump in, we'll jump in. But they do the training."

Silas Henson, 16, left, and Matthew Cruit practice falling in the ring Tuesday at a Total Nonstop Kids wrestling class in Lancaster.

For example, last week Miller was standing outside the ring giving instructions to students, including Silas Henson, 16, while Kevin Cruit was in the ring working with him.

"I love wrestling and I want to be a wrestler," Henson said.

He said he was a little nervous, but ready to learn anything. His mother, Angela Henson, said she supports her son's wrestling endeavor.

"Every kid needs dreams and that's his dream," she said. "He's been into wrestling ever since he could walk. So I say take the shot and either he's a success or fails. He'll learn how to do the moves without hurting himself or hurting the partners. What he needs to know, first off, is if he can even do it?"

Wrestling is physical and can be dangerous. Cruit said injuries could range from a stubbed toe to a broken neck. But he said unlike football, wrestling is controlled.

"You pick the kid up this way, you set him back down this way," Cruit said. "Here's how he can get hurt. Here's how you stop him from getting hurt. And here's how you protect him from hurting you. So I go over all the different ways."

Cruit said he has stopped students from doing something that could cause an injury in the past.

"We're very safe," he said. "I think the worst injury I had in the year I was doing it before (teaching) was a stubbed thumb."

Those who do well in the school will leave with a skill and a sense of accomplishment, Cruit said.

"If they would have had something like this when I was a kid I'd have been down every day all day," he said.

Those interested in the school just need to simply show up any Tuesday or Thursday before the class starts. The school also has a Facebook page under TNK Youth Pro Wrestling.

jbarron@lancastereaglegazette.com

740-681-4340

Twitter: @JeffDBarron